A Heart of Ice: A TAC Alternate Timeline
by Hyperjade
Summary: Caleb has failed. The portal gone, his family out of reach... Caleb has nothing left, so he thinks. He is aware of his failure, his betrayal, and this time, Sky Peak is not the destination. Soon, he will be the one out of reach. TAC alternate timeline. Oneshot, though it is a lengthy chapter.


**The Absolite Chronicles Alternation:**

 **This is going to be a single chapter, detailing the events past Palkia closing the portal at Caleb's request that would have occurred had Caleb not gone to sky peak or returned to the guild eventually. This story having occurred to me on a whim, I had to get it on paper. Here we go...**

 **Caleb's POV**

I stumbled across stone slowly as I made my way away from the cavern… The blasted cavern where I had just decided that this horrid world meant more to me than my friends, my family, my own home. How wrong I was, how foolish.

But that was it. Palkia had warned me that I would never get another chance to go home, and I had cried for him to close it. I had **cried**. Now I felt no tears. Only dead, cold calculation and understanding.

Understanding that nothing had a point anymore.

Understanding that my life had no meaning

Understanding that this was not my world nor was I needed in this world.

Understanding that I was the biggest liar I had ever met, and that I had betrayed everyone I had ever loved.

Understanding that it was over.

There was water ahead of me. I had almost gone to the mountains, but there were all sorts of dungeons and places to be found by others. If I wanted to disappear for good, and I did, the ocean was probably the best place to hobble over to.

I considered my options, which included but were not limited to: finding a way across the ocean to some remote and lifeless island where I would probably starve, sinking right into the waves and promtply drowning while hoping that nothing like a dungeon was underneath the waves, or walking along the beach until I could find a way into an undiscovered dungeon that I could just… exist in. Maybe if I let myself become one of the pokemon in the dungeon, the pain would just go away. They seemed to be in a trance anyways.

The first and third were more viable options really. I did not even know if I **could** drown. Probably, but if not it would be a waste of my time to try. I looked towards where the sun had gone, conveneiently in the direction of the barely visible water about a mile down the road. How easy it would be to let things like this go.

I could never let it go. Betrayal of everything I had ever known; I did not deserve a happy life. I deserved to die alone and unloved. This weight on my mind would not be my burden for long…

A while later, I reached the waves. My mind was already in a loop of pain and even some denial, but that denial disappeared the instant I stopped to view my paw, contemplating the fact that I would never, ever be human again. I stared at the fur on the back of my paw as well as my pad for a long time. My claws, my fur, my skin. I was a monster, physically and mentally. How long had I been expected to handle this?

I slowly moved my rather inversatile paw to my other leg and pressed my claw against my other leg. Despite the fact that I could cut just about any object with my claws, my skin and fur resisted my own weapons of destruction.

I wondered at the effect it was having. I could cut myself, but not deeply. Closing my eyes, I reached out with my absol senses and searched for my type auras. Ghost around my claws, and a rather even mix around my legs. The aura was focusing on a point where my claw was pressed against the skin.

 _Part of our ability to resist damage is the types of energy inside of us._

I knew how to move my own energy around now. I pulled that energy away from my leg and allowed it to build up elsewhere, feeling a huge amount of strain suddenly appearing in my left shoulder and paw. Then, I flinched as my claw suddenly sunk into the skin of my leg and pierced it deeply.

The pain felt really good. It was… distracting. I could pretend that this was a bigger worry for a while as it began to bleed. Not as much as I would have expected, but it was bleeding. Each wound was that of my family, the ones I had never come back to for a foolish, selfish decision.

I moved along the beach, aware that I was leaving a slight blood trail. I did not know if it was possible to bleed out for a pokemon. It **would** make things easier on me to just grow dizzy and collapse, but… That would wind up with me being easy to find by a passerby.

 _I will not submit to being discovered by someone. I feel that if they believed I would run off, they would restrain me._

Not to be deterred, I began to walk. If I started to get dizzy, so be it. I had no way of making myself a bandage or anything. I was not bleeding as badly as I would have been as a human… One more reason to resent my form. Not going to make things easy on me.

I stumbled along, relishing in the pain of my leg and letting myself think of my past. If I had my way, and I believed I could get it with some work, I could end this pain peacefully. I had to learn what I had to do.

For hours I just walked. I felt exhausted, but I would not sleep. I could not sleep. If I slept, I risked discovery. Discovery was unacceptable. I would travel along the coast until I discovered something that could get me across the ocean or a dungeon I could stay in until whatever it does to gather pokemon happens to me and everything fades away and I become a simple creature that fights whatever shows their face.

All I would do was walk.

I walked for five hours. I did not stop. I did not rest. I ignored the pain in my legs, the pain in my left foreleg in particular, which kept reopening because of the constant use I was giving it. I never began to feel dizzy. It seemed losing this much blood at a time would not kill me off… yet.

Five hours of just contemplating everything I knew and loved about the people I had abandoned needlessly. My mother was a kind, helpful person who had my best interests at heart. While she asked me to help her often, she never asked me to do something I could not handle. I have met the mothers of many children personally, and none understood their children as much as my own mother understood me.

My father enjoyed playing chess and other board games like cribbage. While I only took to chess, I had humored him and played other games with him. He was my father, and he loved it when I played board games with him. I also assisted him with things around the house when I was not doing my homework.

My good friend Riley was rather odd in what he did, but he still acted as a friend. He was strong, and would help me through something like physical fitness, a task I normally did not get involved in. People in high school were not exactly tolerable, acting in spite of me. Riley's popularity with some of the others did shield me from some of the things that would have happened to me. Until I became this monster, I had not been physically equipped for strength based tasks.

I tolerated my friend's antics, though I never acted in a playful manner unless I thought something would be **truly** funny. I only regretted it when he took me camping, which he never did again after I had a very unfortunate situation with a hiking trail that had me tripping about and generally suffering.

But even so, he was my best friend. I had not only left him, I had **replaced** him. As if someone like that could be replaced.

Other friends included a girl named Alex and another girl named Amanda, both about my age. It was a purely friendship based connection. I don't feel romantic connections to others, nor have I ever had any kind of attraction to any boy or girl whatsoever. It was not a part of me.

These were the people I knew beyond my teachers and others I knew. The people who would care that I had gone… There were probably more, people in my family I did not know as well or saw as often, like my grandparents or cousins and their parents, people who I knew but not as well.

I was crying again.

My eyes closed, I continued walking across the beach. I forgot my absol senses and just reviewed my life over and over and over again. I was not supposed to cry. I was supposed to be the immovable Caleb. Incapable of being intimidated and always thinking everything through. I was thinking it through right now…

And there was only pain. I knew only pain. I had nothing left. I had no reason to continue existing at all.

My face smacked into something, causing me to open my eyes. I had smacked into a tree. I had strayed off of the sand a bit. I ignored the pain in my snout and continued. I felt a splinter on my lip, which also did not matter at all.

I needed a way off of this continent. I needed to find a way to cross the water. Someone had said something about a tournament at some point, referencing other continents and their guilds and inhabitants. There had to be a way across the water.

 _There has to be a way…_

Another hour brought me to the edge of the water. The beach turned and curved away towards the north. Would I follow it? Maybe. I had not seen anything to suggest that I should not. Other than the concept that I may be jumped and brought back to the guild.

So what did I need to do to get off this continent? Off of this planet would be preferable, but I had spent the last six hours walking away from the wasted opportunity to do **that**.

As luck would have it, there was something in the water. It was a lapras, much like the one that had taken us to the spacial rift.

"Excuse me!" I called out loudly, my ears ringing from hearing a proper amount of noise for the first time in six hours. "May I speak with you for a moment?"

It took a minute, but the distant being turned and started to travel towards me. I knew exactly what I was going to say. Rather, I knew how I was going to converse with this one.

"Hello, Lapras." I greeted the pokemon as it approached me. I had gotten the sense that it was female considering her voice last time. This time however, I was to be surprised.

"I am surprised you know me." the clearly male voice rang out from the lapras, causing me to blink.

"I must apologize, I believed you to be the lapras that I knew. I took it that your kind were uncommon." I replied "Even so, I had considered asking a favor of you."

"Most of us lapras travel the world by sea, rarely needing rest" this lapras explained to me "I would be happy to ferry you where you needed to go, as I have all the time in the world."

I nodded, thankful that he was not some grouchy being that would have refused me. "I wish to go to a remote place, one where there is no other life. Preferably an island where I cannot be found." I began, causing the water type to look at me warily.

"Why would you wish to go to such a place?" he asked, confused.

"Please do not ask me this" I requested "I simply must go where no pokemon live."

Lapras hesitated. His worried frown very obvious to me. "...I know of a place. A mountain in the middle of a large snowy plain, completely devoid of life. If I take you there, I will come back for you within the day. You must not stay there. It is cold and inhospitable. So cold that even a pokemon with your thick fur could actually be in danger." Lapras warned me.

 _Perfect._

I nodded, and Lapras very reluctantly turned around so that I could clamber onto his shell. Lapras looked back at me, worried. "You look like you have not slept in too long." he told me "You must sleep. We will arrive by midday."

"Very well." was my reply, before I curled up on the shell and slept.

* * *

Riley met me in the dream. It was nearly night time for them. "Where have you been? Caleb and Sarah are very worried about you." he demanded.

"Lack of sleep." I replied.

"Thinking of the pokemon world? It's done. You left it behind." Riley calculated, not knowing the situation as well as he should.

 _That's right… I never sent a message to them._

"No…" I replied miserably "I didn't. I failed."

My tears started to fall again as the children appeared to find me like that, slumped over and soaking the bed where I had 'awoken' with my tears. Soon enough, I felt them next to me. "C-Caleb?" Sarah's counterpart murmured "Are… Are you all right?"

They had never seen me cry. I was their indestructible and sometimes playful guardian. I was not the one to burst into tears. I was not **supposed** to be.

"I… I couldn't do it. I couldn't go back home…" I cried "It's… Over…"

I did not know how long I cried. I barely remembered talking about it at the kid's request. The last part… that was not for them. "Kids… Please let me speak with Riley" I requested of them. I did not want to speak of this. Not around them.

There were protests, but Riley saw my eyes and apparently decided that this was best left to the adults. He herded the children away and to their rooms. I heard him promising the kids that they were not in trouble but that this had to be private, and somehow managed to lock the doors.

Riley reappeared in the doorway, looking solemn. "Well?" he asked.

I took a deep breath. "I can't do this anymore…" I whispered "I deserve nothing, and I have no life to live for. I became a monster who would abandon his family and friends, Riley."

Riley was silent.

"This… This has gone on far enough, and I threw away my chance to save my family and friends the pain that they will suffer from at my apparent death" I continued, choking on the words.

Riley walked up to me, and set his hand on my head in a comforting manner. "...You know it's your decision, right?" he asked me, causing me to raise my bloodshot eyes. "I was never alive to begin with, you know. I also know that you have been thinking of how terrible it must be of you to replace your friend."

I froze. "You… I do not hold any grudge against you" I replied. I did not. I only felt bad for my treatment of the real Riley by creating this one. It was my problem, not the problem of the boy trying to comfort me.

I believe Riley understood how set my mind was on death. Life was pointless to me now. All that kept me going was hope, and even if I were to return, I would have no real life. It would be me trying to humor the others, people I did not deserve as friends.

Life was simply not a possibility anymore. I was already on this path, may as well finish it. For good.

"Please… Don't tell the kids just yet…" I murmured, catching his nod. He knew there would only be thought questions that would bring Caleb far more pain than he was already feeling. His life had been over the moment he had walked away from that portal.

"Just do something for me." Riley suddenly said, prompting Caleb to listen in.

"Yes?"

"Make this last while as fun for the kids as you can, okay?"

There was no hesitation. "Of course. They deserve it, even if I don't." I responded. My friend and I seemed to agree that there was no point, or at least he respected my decision.

* * *

As I had promised Riley, that day was nothing but fun and games for the kids. I forced myself to act cheerful as I knew I would be doing… for just a little longer. A little longer before I managed to drop dead somehow and and this misery. That was my plan, anyhow.

The only thing I had any longer was these two kids and Riley. I believed that I would only experience torment for the rest of my life had I stayed, something I did not wish to do. I wanted peace. I could not have that.

As I awoke from Lapras' back, We were approaching a mountain surrounded by unforgivable waves and whirlpools that Lapras effortlessly tore over. The mountain was pure white, surrounded by a plateau of sorts that acted as a plain of snow, the edge of said plateau was the water, and it looked like it took a steep drop in all directions.

Lapras noticed I was awake as I stretched much like a cat. Another thing to hate about myself. "We have arrived. If you really want to go up there, I will send you up with a waterfall technique, but I expect you to be at that spot tomorrow. I am **not** taking chances here. You feel the cold already, correct?"

I started to pay attention, noticing that the air was indeed very cold, going straight through my fur. There was no wind. The air felt thin. The island was… dead.

"Send me up." I commanded.

While Lapras launched us upwards with a geyser of water, he floated atop that water and looked at me once we were level with the ledge. "Good luck with what you intend to find, but I will remind you once more to be back here by tomorrow at noon" Lapras reminded me.

I leapt off of him without a word. I nodded a farewell to him, knowing that we would never see each other again. He was clueless as to my true intentions, and hopefully nobody would learn of this before I had a chance to let myself go in some secluded cavern or something. It would be impossible to 'save' me here, as Sarah was no doubt planning to do right this very moment.

Lapras dove back into the ocean, starting to swim away as I watched emotionlessly. My face a dull mask and my mind on my failures, I travelled inland.

The mountain seemed like a good place to just lay down and sleep. So did the plains, but… I still headed towards the mountain. The thing was massive, jagged, and unforgiving. A bad fall could get you killed there if you were a human without a doubt. Probably as a pokemon as well if I could think fast enough to focus my type aura to a single point.

My leg wound had scabbed over to the extend that moving around did not reopen it. It was no longer a problem unless I accidentally or 'accidentally' hit it on something and reopened the wound. A bit of pain would not deter me if I decided to do that.

It took me five minutes to walk to the base of the mountain, where the mountain opened up into a cavern. Almost like an opening in the roots of a tree. I immediately went in, a thought occurring to me. If this was a dungeon, perhaps I could find a way to become one of the seemingly mindless and aggressive pokemon in here. Perhaps that would be the same as being asleep while the body attacks whatever shows up.

Problem was, I did not know how to do it. I would have to die not knowing.

I found myself in a cavern filled with icicles and other sharp things made of rock and ice. A wrong move and I got hit with one of those stalactites or icicles. Maybe it would impale me.

There was a single light from a hold in the ceiling that had a few nasty icicles of its own. This light focused on a pedestal, and on that pedestal, a bright blue disc was halfway impaled into the frozen rock. There would be no point moving it.

It was however a technical machine, that much was obvious from the label on it. It read 'ice beam'. An intriguing thing to see. Perhaps I should just use it. It was not going to get any other visitors anyhow. On my little impulse, I moved and touched the frozen disc with my forehead.

Instantly, information flooded my mind and the disc turned grey and collapsed into black dust. I had just learned ice beam. The ability to freeze things… Perhaps including myself?

I tested it out by opening my mouth. Channeling ice energy into my maw, I sent a few light blue sparks of what looked like electricity hit the ground and produce tiny ice crystals. An impressive technique, and I could freeze myself. If I did **that** , I could sleep indefinitely and just stay in my dream world, hopefully preserved for as long as I want to be.

I needed to make certain I could control it before I did anything rash. I needed to learn how to build a proper frozen grave to sleep in… hopefully without dying for quite a while so that I could sleep and play with the kids for as long as the ice would let me.

I focused on an object. I thought about a shape that I wanted to see, and focused that image into my ice beam. To my astonishment, it worked… Almost.

What was supposed to be a chess piece was a mangled mess, but it was still upright. it was still resembling a piece of some sort, though it was not identifiable as a chess knight.

I walked away from the cavern with haste. I needed to discover how to control this. The still, freezing air chilled me to the bone right through my fur, but I ignored this. I had to get myself out of here and build things out of ice until I was so proficient at it that my attempt to send myself into a frozen sleep would go without actually dying. I had a chance here!

A chance to let my life fade away and still be with the kids and Riley and whoever else I would help join the dream someday. I felt my sense of resignation at the thought of destroying the dream world fade away. It was to be replaced by a hope that I could disconnect without actually dying. My only chance to forever be free of this world without destroying the kids' dream.

I walked out into the cold sun and immediately began to focus on my task. I started by trying to build something randomly shaped. I focused on the intricate design I wanted and blasted my new ice beam. It looked a bit… melty. It wasn't actually melting, but my initial design seemed to have sunk a bit and looked like it had become a liquid for a moment and then re-solidified.

 _Try again…_

I focused on a tree. It's trunk, branches, and leaves. I focused harder than I ever have, calculating, analyzing, focusing. I blasted the ground and moved my light blue lightning attack upwards until there was a tree there.

I had already done it. It was already a nice tree made of ice. I was capable of controlling this technique to build what I wanted to build.

I made a line of trees, aware that my energy was dropping fast. I made another line anyhow, leading to the entrance of that cavern. I could handle this. I could do what I needed to in order to master this technique, and then, everything I had planned could come to pass.

 _Dear Caleb, Sarah, and Riley… I have had a breakthrough. It may be possible to exist without being connected to the world in any manner. If I succeed, everything will be fine, and I might never have to leave again._

My message was clear to Riley, and that promise would have the children cheering with delight. Their dear guardian was coming home forever if he did what he was trying to do.

Something hit me. I was still the monster who had abandoned my family. I did not deserve friends and family, I certainly did not deserve these kids. I did not deserve to have somebody who loves me. I did not deserve any of it. Yet, I still was here planning to give myself such a thing for an indefinite period of time.

 _Selfish of me… Yet I cannot take more pain…_

I decided that it was no matter. Maybe I could even let my past by after a good fifty years have passed.

 _If I succeed._

 _I will succeed._

 _Maybe._

uncertainty was beginning to run rampant while I tried to focus on my next task for the day. What if I actually died, what if the freezing process failed to preserve me and let me sleep?

Then I would die, and the dream would end. There would be no more pain. Things would simply cease to exist. This made the most sense. There would be no pain. The last of my moments could be spent happy with what I have and helping the others be happy.

For if there was anything, **anything** I truly knew, it was that my pain would only spread to the others. Only pain could be shared between Riley and I, and even the kids would have trouble being their happy selves. Easier if I just allow things to fade to black if I fail.

I could not bear to see the kids angry or in pain…

I was beginning to run low on energy for ice beam already. Making two lines of trees took quite a bit of ice, so that was to be expected. I needed to continue however. I felt the need to create more of my memories.

I ignored how much energy I had and started freezing everything. My structures were big and intricate and reminded me of human life. I started breathing heavily about thirty minutes later. Each project had taken about a minute at most, and some were quite impressive. It looked like a bunch of household items had been frozen, supersized, and scattered about the floor.

The wasteland had turned into the equivalent of a very messy bedroom floor that nobody would clean up. By the end of the day, I had perfected the ice beam attack so thoroughly that if I wanted to, I should be able to find somewhere and sleep indefinitely. Maybe if it preserved me, I could stay asleep for years, even decades. If anybody were to 'free' me, I suppose it would be pretty much over.

 _Unless I die anyways…_

I tried to shut that down. I had to hope that it was possible to be happy and to get away from all of this hell of my own design and misfortune.

 _Hope… What a pointless emotion._

I promptly ran out of energy. I stumbled and staggered, realizing that I had driven myself to exhaustion. I realized that I might actually be in trouble if I did not get into shelter, but I was not about to move successfully. I stumbled once more before collapsing on the floor of my most recent creation. I was just an extra piece in a puzzle, something that should be thrown away.

I passed out.

* * *

The night was still full of playing and fun. Riley had given me a slightly bigger than average smirk as he had gotten my message. He was trying not to show it, but he was clearly happy that there was a chance of survival if I succeeded. The kids had taken my message differently because they had no idea just how useless it was for me to continue.

So I jumped and played with them again, Riley doing his best to help the kids enjoy themselves. They laughed and played, swam and ran, climbed and leaped. They had so much energy. It was truly amazing how much energy they had.

Child Sarah insisted on hide and seek, and this time Riley was to be the seeker because apparently I was no fun when I played it. I guess I found them far too easy even without using my absol sense, an act that had quickly become habit.

 _I allowed myself to make a habit of using my new body, despite wanting to get back into my own again…_

Turns out I'm bad at hide and seek when I start reflecting on my failures and shortcomings, and got a good whack in the head for my lack of effort. I was just glad that Riley was more gentle with the kids.

Child Sarah and Child me were slowly getting better at hide and seek, it seemed.

Rile eventually pulled Sarah's smaller self out of a rather well concealed spot; A pile of leaves in this autumm like area that I made for the colors. These piles were everywhere, and Riley got a little stressed checking them all.

My own child version had instead managed to get himself to the top of a dense tree, just inside of the leaves. It should have been completely impossible for him to get up there, but I decided that he must have **some** power over the dream. He had been there before I was anyhow.

That fact had bothered me for a while. This Sarah and Caleb had been around before I had woken in this little dream. They were already absol when this happened. I did not understand it. Pokemon were not a thing in my world; how could I have possibly dreamed them up?

But I ignored that. Maybe I could consider it… Never. From this day forth, I would have to do nothing but play with them and be happy and maybe… maybe forget everything. That could be nice. I did not deserve to forget, but it would be nice…

The kids wore me down within a few hours, but still I played with them. Energy was a moot point; they deserved the playtime they might not get again. They deserved that much.

I froze.

 _They… They deserve to be able to play and have fun and never grow up…_

Something hit me like a freaking fighter jet. I was putting these kids at risk, and only thinking of my own failures. Even if I was negatively affected by the world and my life, they still deserved to **live**. I was killing myself just being on that frozen island

And that meant killing them.

I choked, drawing the attention of Riley and little Sarah, and Caleb rose out of the leaves in a comical way that I paid little attention to.

 _I was about to risk the lives of these kids because of my own stupid need for death?_

How stupid was I to go through this? How dumb did I have to be to pay no attention to the needs of people I was supposed to be caring for?

Riley immediately rushed me. "Caleb, are you all right?" he asked, probably worried that I was dying **right now**. Mentally, I might be. Everything I had built up over the last few days; my sorrow, my anger, my regret, my hatred of myself, all of that was me about to kill two young and innocent children and a copy of my best friend.

"N-no." I stammered, absolutely shell shocked. "N-n-..."

Riley quickly grabbed me and rushed for the house. My mutterings increased as I started whispering apologies and muttered replays of my failures. "Caleb, if you want to get out of here, you need to wake yourself up and get out of here!" Riley commanded me.

"I-I I'll try" I stammered, thinking about waking up. I wanted to wake up so badly.

"I can't…" I muttered, my concentration bearing no fruit. I tried harder. I was in control. I had my mind. I could get out of this.

"I… Won't… Risk you all.." I muttered, and With one final push, I commanded my mind to jolt awake in the best way I could. I caused myself physical pain.

Blackness. It came so suddenly, I wondered if I had failed and died. Then again, I was thinking. I did not believe in ghosts. I forced my eyes open, seeing the white clouds above me. I felt cold. Very cold. I had just fallen asleep for several hours in the cold without moving at all, I was very hungry, and I felt the need to get out of here quick.

Except my body wouldn't respond.

 _No! No, no no! Get up! Get up and survive!_

I finally got my muscles working, though the success was laced with failure as they were working very poorly and I could barely move, had no energy.

 _Who cares if I betrayed everyone I knew!? How could I lead myself to believe that was acceptable to do to the rest of my family!?_

They **were** family. Child Sarah and Child Caleb and Riley. They were the family I had left; risking their lives was unacceptable. But I couldn't move.

I rolled over very slowly, noticing blood on the ground. A lot of blood. My left foreleg was not moving at all, and when I looked, I saw why. The wound was twice as far open as it had originally been, and I was both freezing to death and losing blood at an alarming rate.

 _Did I do this? Did I hurt myself physically when I sent that attack on myself?_

My question went unanswered. I could not stand, could not move that leg or paw, and was dying. It was too late.

 _No!_

I looked away into the distance. Much too far of a distance to crawl to. Much too far. I could not get there. Even if Lapras was still waiting for me, I could not make it.

 _I… I just sacrificed the remainder of my… family…_

I forced myself to look the other direction. The cavern where I had found the ice beam technique lay open. Maybe it was slightly warmer in there… I began to drag myself with the one leg I had available. It was taking too long. What did I hope to accomplish?

It took ten minutes. How I was still alive, I had no idea at all. I should not be. I should have succumbed nine minutes ago. I was at the pedestal with the ice beam. Now I was up a single step. That was when I gave out. I collapsed next to the technical machine, or at least the ashes of it, which had already frozen over.

How much of a failure I was. I abandoned my family, betrayed them, had gone away with the full intent of committing suicide in some way, and would have abandoned my dream family as well. I **had** abandoned them. They were going to **die** , and I could have stopped it. I could have been smart about it, but I was stupid. I was being ridiculous.

I was dying, and for the first time since Palkia closed that rift, I wanted to live. Just for the three people I was still responsible for, despite my betrayal and abandonment of others. If it had been myself, I wouldn't give a **damn** about my own life. But… It would have devastated everyone in the guild as well. I had such an influence on the lives of others, and I finally realized that my death could only cause more pain.

At least, I realized that I cared about their pain still. I had forced myself not to. I wanted my own pain to end.

And now, I would get my wish. As well as the other three being destroyed as well. My tears froze on my eyes, sealing them shut as I cried, or tried to. This had all been a big mistake, one that would cost the others their lives.

Except…

I still had ice beam. I could still freeze myself. I had some power left for an attack. I forced my mouth open, losing even more heat, and unleashing it as much as I could.

Frost traveled along the floor, growing into statues. I sensed what they were. I was trying to create a shell to freeze myself solid in, but instead statues of people appeared. They were…

 _I don't want to see them! I want to try and live for the others!_

The ice sculptures stared at me, silent, judging. I could think of them, but not a stupid shell for myself? No. I would not allow this. I was not going to stand by and die without at least trying, at least doing **something**.

I erased the images from my mind, and I focused on only one thing: Freezing myself so solidly that I could never be taken out. I could never be disrupted. Maybe I would even be in stasis and survive long enough to at least let the kids have some more fun for just a little while.

Ice began to form on my body and expand outwards. My ice beam flashed like electricity over the sphere I was creating with the very last of my energy, the last energy I might have forever. The sphere became a polyhedron, as I barely felt through my absol sense before I went truly blind. My ice beam stopped erupting from my mouth, and I felt very numb, disconnected from the world.

I barely noticed when I fell asleep in the numbing silence, aside from when I suddenly felt very, very warm.

"Caleb!" I heard somebody shriek "You're okay!"

I slowly and painfully opened my eyes. Two worried little absol children and Riley stood above me. The former two were actually **on** me. "I-I'm sorry…" I murmured, and Riley stepped forward.

"Caleb, you did not make it?"

"...No… I froze myself instead. I could not make it to the water's edge, and I feared that Lapras would no longer be waiting for me…" I responded, feeling very weak. Riley put his hand on my flank.

"You feel cold to the touch." He noted, bringing his hand back. "Will the dream persist? Will you survive?"

"What's going on?" Child Sarah asked of all of us. I flinched, and Riley looked away.

"Kids… I have something I should tell you…" I said with difficulty. I felt warm, but my body still reacted like it was frozen. I could barely move.

They shuffled up to me, then moved to lay on either side of me, trying to keep me warm. It was comforting, even if we were going to die after a while.

I took this as an opening to continue. "I told you my story of what I did to my family…" I started "Because for a long time, I have been looking for a place to end that pain. Disconnect from the world in the most permanent way possible."

"W-what does that mean?" Child Caleb asked, and I flinched. They did not even know what death **was**.

"I… I wanted to die. I was contemplating destroying myself." I hesitantly explained. Their eyes widened, and I flinched.

"C-Caleb!" Child Sarah exclaimed "You can't! You… You had friends still! From that guild!"

I stared at the small red absol. I had no idea she could talk like that. She always sounded cheerful. Now she sounded surprised and… She sounded like she was protesting against me.

"Sarah… It's not that simple." I began to explain "Every one of those faces simply reminded me of my betrayal, and even thinking about them brings me incredible pain. Every single aspect of my previous life and the more recent life I had a chance to escape from only brings me unimaginable pain. I can't… I thought I couldn't live like that."

Silence. The two of them pressed closer to me, confusing my addled mind. They should have been shying away from me, right?

"But in my haste to end everything, I forgot what mattered most… The reason I needed to live. You three." I continued "If I was to die, this dream would have vanished, and all of you would have vanished with it. But… The moment I realized, it was far too late. I was already incapable of getting off of the frozen island which I had trapped myself on. I was going to die… I froze myself in a chunk of ice, hopefully slowing or stopping the process down."

 **RUMBLE….**

"But… It seems that I failed all of you." I finished, looking out at the source of the rumbling. There was a darkness around the dream. Far in the distance, the light just disappeared. I watched from the field as the darkness spread upwards, obliterating the sun I had fabricated above. Everything should have been impossible to see, but I could still see it. We were simply surrounded by the blackness.

I choked. There was a strange sense in my body, like the outer layer of my body was flickering. I looked back at my flank, and it was indeed seeming slightly… different. I did not know what it was, but I was sure it had something to do with death.

Those kids, the ones who should have hated me, who should have run away from me and cowered before the darkness, stayed pressed against me in a comforting manner. I stiffened, so confused. My now slightly addled mind was reeling.

"Why…" I murmured "Why don't you hate me? I have killed us all… I don't deserve people who love me…"

They only pressed even closer, if physically possible. They stayed there for several seconds, seconds in which another, smaller rumble occurred and I could only imagine that the space we had had shortened.

"We don't hate you…" my child form proclaimed, tears coming from his eyes. "We love you…."

I jolted, or tried to. My body still did not respond. "W-what?" I asked, befuddled.

"You play with us, you're friends with us… You've given us everything we could possibly want. You care about us so much, even if we're just part of your dream." Child Sarah continued.

"No, no don't ever think that. You are not **just** some part of my dream" I reprimanded the two of them. "You are sentient, living beings who deserved nothing but happiness for as long as I could manage it, and that is where I have failed."

They had no response to that for a while. I think they must have been considering the words from my mouth, and the tone I had taken. They had never been scolded like that before. I broke at the expression I slowly brought my forelegs up and gave them what I could to a group hug.

"I am sorry… I am so, so sorry." I sobbed, keeping them as close as I could. If they felt weird with my tears dripping on them, they gave no sign. Their own tears splattered the grass as my own tears hit them and the same grass.

 _My failure could never be more evident than right now._

The darkness was closing in on us with alarming speed. The mountains in the far distance had gone. Soon, crater lake would be gone. The kids had loved those mountains in the distance, despite never being able to go to them because they were basically a backdrop.

Riley watched Crater Lake, silently standing away from us in a protective manner. He was still doing his job, still standing there as if he wasn't allowed to cry… He wouldn't let me tell him otherwise.

The destruction of my reality began to go faster. Something was making me dizzy. I'm dying. That is what it is. I am beginning to lose my mind.

"I… Am dying." I finally said "Please… Don't let me die alone…" I murmured.

"W-w-we won't!" Child Sarah promised

"We'll never leave you alone!" Child Me promised.

Warmth. I felt warmth in my chest. It seemed there were still two people in the world who really loved me. My family.

"My family…" I murmured aloud.

"Caleb…" they muttered back, clearly misunderstanding me.

"Not them… You. You three are my family, and…. I let you down." I replied, trying to halt my crying. I was no longer who I was supposed to be. "A story, perhaps. One last story before we… disappear."

Riley twitched, and I knew he was listening. The kids turned their heads to me. It hurt so much to see them cry. "We're listening." was all they said. It saddened me. Their innocence was gone. They were going to die, and they knew it.

"...Once upon a time, a boy was born into the world." I began "This boy was not like the others. This little boy quickly became separate from other children. Those other children… They taught him how to be an adult through their immature mockery and foolishness. The boy became an adult before several adults around him did."

"This boy made more adult friends than he could have any friend who was his age. The boy studied, kept to himself, and learned all that he could. He learned not to trust people he had just met. He learned that he could only depend on himself for survival, because even the adults in charge sometimes let him down. Most of the time, all he had was himself, his family, and a few friends. Even those friends were sometimes distant save one."

"This is not a happy story…" Child Sarah whimpered

"No… It is not… But this story must be told. The… The boy grew slowly, into a calculating, calm individual who had everything under control, he had a life ahead of him, he was going to be successful. A good student, someone who tried to be helpful… He could have achieved anything he wanted to as long as social skills had little to do with it."

"But then, the boy found himself somewhere else. A teenager at this point, the young man was thrust into a world that was not his own, away from his family and friends. Before he even opened his eyes, he was calculating. Realizing that he was not human, realizing that he was not in the same place, realizing that he was in fact somewhere that made no sense."

"Quickly, he was found by another person, someone that would contribute some to his successes, and even more towards his eventual failure. Then, he found more people to be with, more people to talk to, but he never unfroze himself to be with them. He knew that he must have a chance to get himself home, and so he journeyed."

"He traveled and traveled, and eventually found a god. A god who would try to help him in return for his own treasure, which the boy would have given to the dragon anyhow. Palkia, sympathetic to the boy, decided to help him anyhow."

"And so for the next several days, this boy waited patiently for Palkia to return with the news he had long been waiting for; that there was a path home."

"Eventually, Palkia returned with good news; the boy would be able to go home and see his family. He could get past all of this and survive in the human world. Except… When he got to the location with this portal, he found the girl who had woken him up nearly dead on the ground. Believing her to be completely dead, the boy swore revenge on the monster and became a monster himself."

"The two monsters did battle with each other, completely out of control while many others nearly died in the process. When the girl was saved and healed, she found a way to heal the two monsters, revealing them to be two friends that had been infected by a dark force."

"The boy eventually realized that he himself had been responsible for the appearance of this dark power, having carried around a deadly weapon that generated this energy by accident. This giving him another reason to leave and not face the people who had made it difficult for him to leave, he quickly made for the portal."

"But directly afterwards, the boy stood at the portal. At that moment, he realized many things. He realized that he had no guarantee that he would become human again. He realized that this place had no trouble, no problems, it was nice in the new world."

"Despite knowing that his family was waiting, he could not do it. he could not force himself to go forward into the portal. This knowledge crushed him. He felt destroyed. The boy wanted to leave so badly, but he was selfish. A selfish desire was keeping him from his family and friends, desperate for him to commit a crime that he could never recover from."

"The boy then committed that crime. He then abandoned everything he had known, let them think he was dead, and walked away. Some might argue that he had died that very moment, and became an empty shell. What truly happened was more terrifying. He was ready to destroy himself, find a way to the most isolated place possible and end it all. he wished to commit suicide."

"Just before he achieved that goal, he realized just what a mistake he had made. He tried to amend, to fix his error in judgement. It was too late. He could not get away from the island. He was going to die, and he knew it. In a last ditch effort, that boy froze himself, alone and worried, in the hopes of preserving himself to allow his dream to continue and for the people he loved the most that he had left."

"And yet, his final failure approaches as he will die anyhow, as his dream collapses around him and he realizes that his final act was to kill the three remaining members of his family" I finished, falling into silence and resting my head on the ground.

Even Riley had a tear rolling down his cheek after that.

"I hated that story…" Child Sarah murmured "I'm so sorry…"

She knew who the main character of this story was. So did my child version.

"Promise me something…" I requested.

"Sure."

"Of course!"

"You two… You don't need to ever grow up. You can be children if you want to be." I told them "Promise me you won't stop having fun. Promise me you won't stop being who you are before the very end, all right? It hurts to see you following in my footsteps. I have made too many mistakes, and I can't let you repeat them."

"You don't want us to act like you?"

"I want you two to be happy. As happy as you can be with our destruction approaching." I replied tiredly. Imagining those two trying to be stoic was too much. It reminded me of what might have gotten me into this situation in the first place.

"You're dying, Caleb! We want you to live!" Child Sarah exclaimed, butting my shoulder with her head, and Child Me nodded vigorously. "We can't be happy if you die! You always play with us and take care of us and help us and give us things even though you didn't need to!" Child Caleb added.

I looked down. Of **course** they couldn't be happy. I acted as a father to them. I was breaking down and dying and was never going to see them again, and they would never see me again. "I…" I murmured "I'm so, so sorry. I failed you all."

"Caleb! Don't say that!" they cried in unison.

"It was just us before you came around." Child Caleb began

"You kept us safe and you played with us." Child Sarah continued

"And you are always kind and happy towards us!" Child Caleb finished.

"Y-you two…" I stammered, looking out again. My forest was diminishing from the darkness, which was alarmingly closer.

"Crater Lake is gone." Riley commented, looking out into the distance. I blinked looking towards where he had been looking.

"...Crater Lake?" I inquired, confused. _What is Crater Lake?_

Riley turned sharply to me. His glasses slipped with the movement, leading to me seeing shock and worry in his eyes. "Caleb, you do not remember the mountain?" he asked, rushing over and putting his palm on my head.

"What mountain?" I asked, blinking. What even was a mountain?

 _I don't know what he is talking about… But he clearly believes that I have forgotten… Forgotten…_

I shrank, my head lowering. "I am forgetting…" I murmured "I… Don't want to forget."

Riley grimaced and the kids gave me sorrowful looks. Seeing them like that hurt me so much, but there was little I could do. "W-... What was Crater lake like?"

"It was a mountain…" Riley started, and seeing me blink, he grimaced again.

"It was huge." Child Sarah took it from Riley "A giant pile of dirt and rock with trees on it, and in the crater inside was a massive lake! It was so beautiful, the water, the trees, the island…"

I no longer knew what an island was, though the word lake stuck with me… for now. "It sounds beautiful." I commented, feeling strangely calm. Either I had accepted my demise, or I had lost the ability to feel fear. Either concept was depressing.

"It was! You made it, and it was so beautiful. You said that your world had a real version of it! We were so amazed!" Child Me exclaimed. Despite that the word was not used, the thank you was there so clearly.

The darkness was closing in on us in an alarming rate. Soon, my forests would be gone, and all that would be left was us at the base of the hill, the hill and house, and the grass. Would I forget what trees were? Most likely.

There was fear in the air. The children stared at the impending darkness of my death with terror in their eyes that they were now failing to hide it. I occasionally muttered apologies and to be honest, I was crying more than the both of them.

 _I am now a murderer… I have killed two children, who might as well have been my own kids._

I had been many things. I have been a monster, I have been a traitor, I have been a terrible friend and a horrible person, a cold, calculating being with a recently unveiled selfish side… Now I was also a murderer. A child killer.

The house was being destroyed. Soon, I would not remember anything that it contained. I decided not to ask. There was no point. Soon, I would be completely gone.

"Caleb… Are we going to die?" Child me asked, putting his small paw onto mine like a child would grab his parent's hand. I closed my eyes.

"I… Yes, Caleb. We are going to die. Soon, we will be destroyed and nothing will remain. We won't remember anything at all. There will only be darkness, and I don't believe there will be any pain, any suffering."

"N-nothing at all?" Child Sarah asked, mimicking the other's contact with my paw.

"I never believed in an afterlife, or ghosts. We will most likely cease to exist, no longer experiencing pain and suffering, no longer troubled by anything. No consciousness."

"No more fun either." Child me pointed out. The kid was getting properly pessimistic. "We can't have each other, even if…" he broke off, eyes tearing up once more.

"I'm sorry…" I said again.

Riley tensed. The darkness was finishing the incline in the ground and we had very little room to move around, maybe about as much space as a bedroom. Whatever a bedroom was. It was gone. I could not remember it.

"I…" Riley muttered, and then, he pulled out his staff, as if he could fight death itself. "Riley… Don't…" I muttered, starting to have trouble breathing. Riley stabbed his staff into the darkness. That weapon had a tendency to absorb energies, but this time, the dark energy touched it, and the entire weapon turned black before vanishing.

"M-my staff…" Riley muttered, stepping back.

 _His what?_

Riley suddenly yanked out his saws and tried to slash at the darkness in front of him, only to lose those as well. The boy stumbled back and stayed as close as he could be to us.

"Riley…" I murmured, unsure of why he had tried to fight the darkness with no weapons or any tricks. He grimaced and sunk next to us, defeated.

We now had three meters of space left. I clutched the kids around me and held them tight, not able to close my eyes. Riley was bigger than us; he would be the first to touch the darkness despite his fear of it.

"Riley… Don't go…" I murmured, not bothering to hold tears back.

"Don't die!" both kids cried out, frozen in fear. Riley suddenly seemed to calm, and turned to them. I gulped at the look on his face. He was accepting his fate. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you…" he murmured, and before long the darkness was too close for him to shrink away from.

He took the time to give the kids and I a comforting hug before he was just barely touched by the darkness surrounding us. His form lost color, became jet black, and was obliterated as we could only stare in horror. I tried to hold on, but my memories disappeared with the boy.

"Riley!" the kids sobbed. They tried to move forward, but I stopped them before they could kill themselves.

"Who… Who is Riley?" I asked, bewildered. Who were they calling after?

"Y-you don't remember him?" Child Caleb asked me, and I shook my head.

"I am forgetting…" I muttered back. "But… I remember you… I don't want to forget! I want to remember you! I want you two to live!" I cried, keeping them close. I closed my eyes, feeling everything go cold around me as if warmth was no longer a concept, and could only hear the cries of the two children I was killing along with myself.

I slowly opened my eyes. There was nothing left. There was nothing but blackness… Why did my flanks feel so warm?

Crying silently, the two children wept. They were still here. They still existed. They weren't disappearing.

"No… Oh no!" I cried out, bringing the attention of the two of them to me.

"We-we're not dead?" Child Caleb asked.

I felt a stab of pain, and I groaned. This was it. My last dying breaths, but the kids… they weren't dying.

"You two… Are you okay!?" I desperately shouted.

"We-we're alive!" Child Sarah exclaimed, still snuggled against me. They seemed relieved, but I was freaking out.

"I… You two… I'm still dying…" I muttered, flinching at another pain soaring through my entire body. I looked back at my flank to see it seeming not to properly have a defined form. I could not tell where my body was, but I could still see it.

"Caleb! Please don't mean that!" Child Caleb cried out, trying to wake me up with the volume of his voice.

"You guys aren't dying! You two!" I was freaking out majorly.

I was freaking out because these two kids were not about to die, and were about to become so very alone in this dark and cold place… If they did not die, they would be forced to exist here forever.

"If you don't die, you'll be alone!" I screamed, the scream partly because of more pain in my body. "I can't… I won't... I don't want you to be alone!"

My words were halted at the same time that I noticed that the children were frozen. "We'll… be alone?" they asked in unison.

I broke down, loosening my grip on them and crying with my head on the black flat floor of sorts. "I won't make it, but if you survive, all you can look forward to is this darkness! You'll be forced to do nothing but wander! I'm so sorry! This is all my fault!" I cried.

I shivered, and I blacked out for a moment. Caleb and Sarah jolted for a moment in fear. "You're disappearing!" the two of them cried, gripping me tightly, trying not to lose me.

"Please… Don't be forced to live in this darkness for the rest of your existence…" I cried still, not even hearing them try to tell me what was wrong.

"Caleb! Can you hear us!?" The voice sounded so distant… It was a child. It was the child I had taken care of… He might as well be my own child. I opened my eyes to find them trying so desperately not to lose me… They needed something. They needed some sort of comfort. I felt my panic die down somewhat, knowing that they might survive past my demise as they must have lived before my appearance in the dream.

"I… I can hear you… Kids… Promise me something."

"Anything! Just don't die! Don't leave us here!"

"I… Don't have a choice…" I admitted, shivering again and alarming the kids. "Promise me… No matter what happens… Don't leave each other. Always stay together. Always be with each other… And understand that sometimes you have to be a kid." I requested.

They cried and were now holding me more than I was holding them. "We promise!" Child Sarah replied, eyes closed. "We promise we won't leave each other!"

My paws began to become transparent. I had little time. "Kids… Understand that I love you both… I have protected you for long enough to know that if I ever were to have children, I would want them to be you two. I am so sorry that I forgot that and got myself killed, and I am so sorry that I cannot be with you, and I am so, so sorry that you must now live in this endless darkness… Understand that you have each other. You could still play together… You could still be children. Promise me you won't ever let tragedy take that childhood away from you. Promise me… Promise me that you will always cherish each other and get along with each other. Promise… Promise that you will remember me…

"We promise! We promise we promise we promise!" They shouted, crying into me as I died. "Caleb! **Caleb!** " they cried as I felt myself no longer be material, more or less simply thought for the moment. I was slipping. I felt my memories go away. I felt everything leave my mind except for those two children. My intellect slipped away. Everything I was disappeared, until I only knew those two, and one more thing before I faded away.

"I love you both." was my final message, echoing throughout the darkness.

And then, just before the blackness came for me finally, I heard them scream that they loved me too.

 **Θ Omniscient POV Θ**

Darkness met the cries of two young absol. They were stood face to face, pawing and even clawing at the point where Caleb had just vanished… For good.

"Caleb!" the small red absol cried, finally giving up and collapsing. The two of them were still alive. There was no physical pain or sign of imminent death. It meant that Caleb had been right: The would be alone… for a long time. Perhaps forever.

" _Promise me… Promise me that you will always cherish each other and get along with each other. Promise… Promise that you will remember me…"_ Caleb had told them.

"We… We will." the small black and white absol promised at the memory. Both had thought of it at the same time, and the child version of Caleb simply vocalized the promise.

"Caleb…" Little Sarah murmured, seeming to still with her paw where Caleb had been. Gone. Gone forever. Never coming back… "Caleb…"

It took a very long time, but eventually, the two children could not bear to stare at the spot where their guardian, and basically adoptive father had faded away into nothingness. Hours had passed without notice.

"C-Caleb?" Child Sarah murmured, speaking to the younger version now. She approached him, and he made eye contact with her. His irises were already red, so the effect of crying for a long time were not as clear as they could have been. Sarah's own eyes however, were clearly red from crying.

"W-what do we do now?" Child Sarah murmured quietly to her friend. The boy sniffled and looked back down.

"I don't know…" he admitted "Caleb told us… He didn't want us to grow up. He wanted us to be safe and be happy and… what was the word?"

"He told us to… not let tragedy take away our childhood… and to cherish each other. What does that mean?"

"I-... I think cherish means… Care?" Child Sarah speculated. It made a lot of sense for that…

"But…" Child Caleb murmured "He wanted us to be happy… I don't…. I can't feel happy. Caleb… He's-"

The young absol choked up, lying down and putting his paws over his eyes, sobbing again. The young female absol decided to snuggle up against him. The comfort provided reminded the male absol kit that he was not alone.

Eventually, realizing that they could not tell where Caleb had disappeared any longer, as it was as silent and cold and black as the rest of it, the children realized that they couldn't just sit there and mourn for eternity in that spot. They would mourn, yes, perhaps for the rest of their lives. However, they kept thinking of their promise to Caleb.

They would try to play with each other and have fun. They could do it. They had promised, after all.

Caleb and Sarah completely lost track of time. They could see each other in the blackness easily, as though they had plenty of light on them, so getting separated was quite difficult. Thus, the did not get separated.

They busied themselves with games, always remembering their believed guardian that, in their eyes, had simply made a mistake. He was forgiven. He had never been a bad guy. Not in their eyes. Riley had been good to them as well.

Games of tag became common. Hide and seek was pointless, as was I-spy. They ran through the darkness, playing, though there was little laughter until a few days worth of time later. Eventually, they began to feel playful again. Eventually, their pain was in the past. It was a rather quick transition, but it had been influenced by their promise.

By the time a week's worth of time had passed for them, they were trying their best to be cheerful and play and be carefree, but always keeping Riley and Caleb in their minds. The children played constantly, rarely tiring and rarely doing much else.

But every once in awhile, real life would hit them like a truck. They took that time to try and calm their nerves and try not to cry. They had to be cheerful, right?

But when a week had passed, something changed.

It was like an invisible wall was just ripped apart nearby the two kits. They squealed in surprise at the sudden noise and ceased their wrestling and shielded their eyes from the sudden white light that had invaded their dark home for that week.

"Sarah, what is that?" Child Caleb asked, scooting close to the absol in question.

She scooted closer to him as well. "I-I don't know."

Having been in the darkness for far too long, the kits observed this tear in the darkness with interest. They could barely look at it, but it had to be better than this darkness…

"I… I think we should check it out." Child Sarah murmured, taking a few steps forward. Child Caleb halted her for a moment.

"What about Caleb?" he asked "We're just going to leave him?"

This decision was now much more difficult. Could they really leave his place of rest? Would he have wanted us to stay?

"We won't leave him." Child Sarah decided "Because we will always remember him. He wouldn't want us to be in that dark cold place forever. I know it."

"...Let's take a look. It can't be worse, right?"

* * *

It was snowing. Hard. The weather had been haywire for three years, beginning sometime after the tournament finished, which was sometime after Caleb had vanished off of the face of the earth.

Two pokemon staggered through the snow, both bundled in warm clothing of a sort that had been recently improvised in the latest years to deal with these new winters that were beginning to cause some serious damage and even be dangerous.

A black and white colored dog-like pokemon walked next to a pokemon who was clearly a grass type. Both focused on the road ahead, simply walking along in silence until the grass type sighed and looked farther ahead.

"To think this used to be a beach." she murmured, peering at the deep snow. The black furred pokemon next to her gave a growl of confirmation and looked out to the water instead. Part of the shore had actually frozen over, retracting the water line.

"Why are we even here?" the dog-like pokemon growled at the other, who sighed. Her friend had slowly gone back to his old ways after Caleb had never returned. They remained friends, but he was as irritable as he used to be, even if he did not actively seek out people to torment. There were enough pokemon like that nowadays in light of events three years ago.

"We make these rounds to try and help any pokemon stuck in the snow. I don't see any tracks at all. Do you smell anybody?"

"Nobody but you." he muttered back. Three years ago, he may have made a wisecrack. hell, one year ago he might have made a wisecrack.

The beach trip ended abruptly as the two pokemon noticed a stretch of ice unaffected by the ocean, as though it had been put there by someone. "That… Is not natural looking. Who's crossing the ocean at this time?"

"...Everyone who doesn't want to live on a continent that's being wasted away by freaky weather and almost three times the dungeons, some of them actually, properly deadly?" her companion responded, shaking his head. Three years since everything went wrong.

Caleb had vanished before the tournament. He never made it back or chose to leave forever. The tournament had gone well enough, though. There had been little understanding of the opponents, and without Caleb, Sarah and Shedinja got taken down quick. Team Rush and team Ivy had both been taken down by team Amber during the tournament.

But it was after the tournament that life went sour for everyone on the continent. Sarah vanished without a trace, and Shedinja had not even **seen** it happen.

Pokemon had begun disappearing. Sarah was the first of the shiny pokemon to be taken, as if someone had an interest in them or something. Whatever sick force had them with it, it did something to them that could never be undone.

Sarah was the first to reappear, and that day, everything turned to the worst since. Her eyes were completely white. No emotion. Nothing. She had been completely gone. We knew this once she started torching everything in the town on sight. Buildings. Pokemon. Everything, and she was merciless.

What had been done to her was completely irreversible. We would knock her out, drag her to a place where pokemon would try to heal her, but as soon as she was awake she blasted apart her confinements and continued her rampage, and nothing could be done to stop her.

What followed had been much more horrifying. As more pokemon with the same condition as Sarah began to show up and continued to destroy the town. But it was far from over when they showed up. It was far worse than that. What happened next had the entire town reeling in shock.

Sarah had been unable to eat or drink anything, and would just destroy whatever was put in front of her. She seemed not to be experiencing the hunger or thirst, but a week after this all started, Servine and Mightyena had personally begun to fend Sarah off and try to minimize the damage…

Before the shiny absol just dropped dead at their feet.

Horror struck the two team leaders, who had both stumbled back and promptly fell back at the sight of her. Eyes still white and emotionless… Gone. Like that.

No cure was found for the other pokemon affected, and soon they met a similar fate. The death count was over ten… No pokemon had ever heard of such a high toll on life beyond natural death. It was horrific.

No other pokemon showed up affected. It was over nearly as fast as it had begun, but then the weather went weird. It started getting much more violent and worse, leading to an investigation that led to finding a strange item that was in operation by no one, but it moved and gave off a light from the top towards the open sky. It was promptly destroyed.

The weather stopped getting worse as fast, but the damage had been done and the climate around the place had been miserable in most cases. Most residents of treasure town realized that it was becoming dangerous and were forced to flee to other continents where the weather had not changed.

Wigglytuff's guild was not moved, but it became extremely difficult to do anything at all properly because the guild was not centralized. Pokemon were sent on patrols to make sure other communities of pokemon were doing all right. Crystal community had been mostly unaffected by the weather change, but the food was beginning to diminish and no new food was growing properly.

Eventually, the region was deemed dangerous. The younger teams and team members were sent away to where it was safe… Including Servine's tangela. Mightyena sent his team away as well, not wanting the others at risk.

Servine and Mightyena remembered it far too vividly.

"I miss them…" Servine murmured, all but tearing up. At least her tangela weren't dead. They were safe somewhere completely different, safe and sound while she braved the cold.

"Stop thinking about it." Mightyena commanded "Focus on learning what's with the new ice walkway.

Servine nodded mutely and moved to check the ice. "It's very precise and very thick." Servine noted.

"Ice beam?"

"Or aurora beam."

The two of them immediately began to follow the path. It was new for them to see this path, and had not been around last week when they moved through the region again. It was going straight across the ocean.

"We should hurry it up." Mightyena told Servine, who nodded. Not hindered by snow, they both cloaked themselves in a heatless white fire and barrelled down the ice. Having trained for years to traverse terrain and save pokemon from any environment, they were capable of doing so.

The quick attack doubled their speed, but it was several hours and multiple breaks before they found the source of the ice. A male lapras was methodically freezing a bridge, nearing a frozen mountain in the middle of the water.

"Excuse me!" Servine called, startling the lapras. he turned quickly. "Finally!" he cried.

"What are you doing?" Mightyena barked at him.

"Nobody answered my request for **years**! the lapras exclaimed. "I was told that it was too dangerous to send pokemon here! Of **course** it's dangerous here! That's why I wanted someone who could get on land to help him! I decided to make this path because now it would never freeze and-"

"Slow the hell down!" Mightyena barked at the lapras "Save who? Three years here could kill somebody. There's no food or liquid water. That thing is just a white mountain. Completely inhospitable, and probably cold enough to cause some serious damage. If anybody was there, he'd be dead by now."

Lapras lost the cheer at apparently being heeded. "I-... I know… He promised me that he wanted a look and that he would be back within the next twenty four hours. I believed him. It's my fault. I led him where he wanted to go."

"He wanted to go here?" Servine inquired "Why?"

"He told me he wanted to go to a place without other pokemon at all, a place where he could be alone." Lapras told them.

"Three years ago?" Servine suddenly asked, and she and Mightyena shared a look quickly. They had thought the same thing at the same precise time.

"Absol?"

"Uh… Yeah."

Mightyena flinched. " **fuck**." he cursed. Probably an appropriate response.

"Get us to the island!" Servine shouted suddenly " **Now**!"

Lapras' eyes widened as the two leaped onto his back immediately and without hesitation. When the water type hesitated, both pokemon growled at him. He quickly made for the island, a trip he made a blessed five minutes.

Sensing the urgency in the pokemon riding him, he blasted a waterfall attack and launched all three of them upwards, so that the two pokemon bundled in warm clothing could leap off.

"I will wait for you!" Lapras called to the racing pokemon. These pokemon clearly knew the absol in question, and they were **not** happy.

"He really went to this place to be rid of us…" Servine murmured as she ran forward with Mightyena, only to be stopped cold by the site before them.

Ahead was a field of random ice sculptures. Sitting on the snow, completely undisturbed all of this time, what looked like a junkyard of things that neither pokemon recognized.

"What…" Mightyena muttered next to Servine, taking it all in. There were so many things here.

It's colder here than back at the region…" Servine noted, tightening her garments. The world had truly become a dark place, with death and destruction and the weather escalation.

"Think Caleb built these?" Mightyena asked.

"No doubt. I've never seen **any** of these things. They have to be human artifacts. It's like he just… threw away his memories or something."

Now Mightyena knew why this mess of items bothered him so much. All of them looked like they had been thrown into the snow, almost like a garbage pile. There were so many things around, and the only nice and tidy one…

"Servine…" Daemyn murmured, walking over to a strange ice sculpture. "Look at this thing. It's so much more detailed than the other things… It's border has a ton of writing on it as well."

Servine looked to the place he was now standing on. There were large ice tiles, though every other tile was somehow shaded to be whiter. On either end of the little checkerboard pattern, a set of massive statues stood. Like the meter wide tiles, the statues had two different colors based on their side.

"Servine inspected one of the white statues. The had miniscule tubes going through them. Making it less clear by making an obstruction for the light within the statue itself.

"This is a game." Mightyena realized, looking at the words. "Servine, this is a **human game**. It says so here. Caleb built this. There's no denying that. He has the rules, different ways to play it even written here, along with a… A personal note."

Hearing Mightyena falter was enough for Servine to come running. The dog pokemon was looking at a footnote on this extended piece of the plaque, written in clearly legible words.

" _It takes two to play this game. As such, I can no longer play it. I_ _ **will**_ _no longer play it. There is only one goal for me… I cannot suffer from my own mistakes any longer."_ The words echoed in the minds of the two pokemon as they read them.

"He wasn't looking for a place to hide, was he…" Servine asked, tears coming to her eyes and freezing there.

"He was looking for a place to die." Mightyena finished, looking away.

"How can you be so damn stoic!?" Servine lost her temper. "Caleb was **trying** to die. He succeeds at everything he tries! He only realized too late that home was a shot in the dark even if he wound up going in, and it nearly killed him on the spot! How can you just take it without tears!?"

"Because with the look in his eye when he walked away from Palkia that day… He might as well have already been dead. At least, we were dead to him. Everyone was."

Then, Mightyena turned angry eyes on the grass type, who stepped back. "You think I'm avoiding getting emotional? Perhaps you haven't seen my nightmares. I haven't stopped seeing that dead look in his eye yet, and it's been three years! I have enough of that bullshit going on in my **dreams** to bother being emotional outside, where people can judge you."

Servine stopped cold, a retort halfway out of her throat. It died and left a horrid aftertaste. She had gotten nightmares as well, but not that long. Her emotional trouble was outside. Mightyena preferred to keep quiet about it.

In other words, they felt the same.

"I-i'm sorry…" Servine murmured, but Mightyena was already on his way. He looked down two lines of trees to the entrance of a cave in the distance.

"Caleb couldn't have done all of this with his claws. He must have learned ice beam and also learned how to force it into specific shapes. These leaves are as proper as real ones… at least the ones on the left side. It's almost like he had less practice on the first one here." Mightyena noted, beginning to walk the path. Erza quickly joined him, trying to ignore the small things made of ice around the trees that looked disturbingly like children's toys of a sort.

"What are you saying?" Servine asked.

"I'm saying he either learned ice beam… or survived a lot longer than he should have done." Mightyena explained.

"You're saying he might have found a way to survive here? But… His message was pretty clear." Servine refuted. Mightyena blinked and hung his head.

"You're right."

The cave entrance looked like nothing special. Neither did most of the cavern, but one single thing stood in the main room of the cave.

A white polyhedron of ice sat on a pedestal. It had the same tubes in it, designed to not be easy to see through at all. "What's this?"

"Just another of Caleb's creations here." Mightyena muttered. He touched it with his paw, recoiling at how cold it was even through the warm boots he had. The clothing was made of warmth bands stitched together to make clothing, so it should have felt just about normal in a place like this. This piece of ice was much colder than the sculptures outside.

Servine froze. "Mightyena…" she warned, backing up to the polyhedron. He turned and froze. At the entrance, placed so that they would not be immediately noticeable as anything abnormal, were statues. Several people stood there, staring at the ice polyhedron.

Feeling extremely creeped out, the two pokemon noticed the tear streaks so evident in the ice. They also noticed the frowns and pouts and the looks in their eyes. It was like they were heartbroken…

"Some ice leads from them to the polyhedron…" Mightyena noted. I turned. At each pair of feet, a thin sheet of flawless ice travelled in an erratic pattern towards the giant ice rock.

"Do you think these are humans?"

"Probably."

"Caleb's… Family and friends?"

"Probably."

"What's in that shell?"

"...It might just be…" Mightyena murmured, walking closer to it. His teeth caught fire and the flames reaches out from his mouth, forming large fangs. He, careful not to physically touch it, started melting the ice.

It worked well enough. The whiteness did not last forever into it, in fact only to an inch. Once the hole was big enough, we looked inside, crowding for space.

We saw a silhouette within the ice. A single horn on the side of it's head, a quadruped, and looking like it was peacefully floating in water. Caleb had frozen himself. "Caleb! Oh… Caleb…" Servine cried out, jumping back.

"Why would he freeze himself? That's a death wish, isn't it?" Mightyena asked.

"Well… Remember the scizor that team thunderwave rescued? He had been frozen solid. He was fine! Caleb might have just put himself into sleep this way!" Servine answered, real joy appearing in her voice for the first time in a long time.

Mightyena started melting the ice again. They had to get to Caleb. They just **had** to. "We're coming, Caleb…" Servine promised.

Something stopped Mightyena. "M-Mightyena? what's wrong?"

"Servine… He won't want to see us." Mightyena explained. "Scizor had been in a state where it felt like a very short time between his capture and his release, and it was like a sleepless dream for that bloke. He won't want us to get him out of there."

"We're doing it anyways."

Servine's bold statement caught Mightyena off guard for a moment. She had gone downright passive for most of the time when Caleb disappeared, and even more when Sarah died, closely followed by the disappearance of Shedinja, whom nobody has seen since both of his teammates had gone.

It hit Mightyena that Servine had grown to depend on Caleb to help her deal with something. That need came about quickly as she had grown to respect her friend, and that respect stayed to this day. She had begun to depend on his council as his council held so much weight.

Mightyena began to burn away the ice until both could easily see Caleb, floating peacefully in the ice with a calm look on his face, though it looked like there was a tear coming from his eye. It was not easy to see, but it could have been that.

"He looks so peaceful…" Servine commented, bringing up her sword to start cleaving away the ice while Mightyena melted it. Eventually, something had to happen.

Fraxure lines appeared in the ice around the absol, spreading up around the polyhedron. The ice with small tunnels in it fell away first, and the rest of it cracked. and started to fall away. Servine grabbed the absol within and slowly pulled while the ice just fell away. Finally, he was free, and the three pokemon tumbled together down the pedestal.

Sobbing now, Erza checked for Caleb's pulse, hoping that he would still be alive, still be able to get up and move around. "Caleb, come on! Live!" she shouted, and Mightyena checked his chest with his paw.

The absol was unmistakably dead.

"Caleb…" both pokemon murmured. Deep down, they had known he would be gone long before they even checked the island, but at least they had their friend back. His body was here, and it could be taken home.

"He looks very peaceful like this…" Servine murmured.

"I-... I don't think all of this has been worth it." Mightyena continued. "I mean… So many pokemon have died. We should bring him back… And I think that's it for me."

Both pokemon stayed as long as they dared with their old friend before picking him up and carrying him slowly through the cave, past the ice trees and Caleb's chess set, which they stopped by for a moment, as if Caleb had asked them to.

Then the continued. Lapras finally was able to see the absol again. He was glad that he had been at least recovered.

Neither Servine or Mightyena were willing to be angry with Lapras for leaving Caleb there. Caleb had told him that he would return within the day, promised even, with no intention of returning.

They sailed off, intending to give the absol a proper goodbye once they were somewhere warm and habitable. Lapras would take them to treasure town and the guild.

"Caleb… We're all so, so sorry…" Servine murmured to her friend as they sailed off into the ocean.

Caleb never responded.

* * *

One month later, a white flash lit up the cavern. At the pedestal, the air ripped open to reveal a dark place. Three years had passed in that week. Something had ripped the air open there. After some time, two young absol stepped out.

"Wh-what is this place?" Child Sarah asked, shivering.

"I-it's cold…" Child Caleb shivered as well

They walked along the ice, thinking that it was colder than the inside of the darkness. "This is not a nice place…" Child Sarah complained, shaking a shard of ice out of her paw. If she was not feeling so numb with cold that she had only released a small yelp of pain.

The two walked out of there. They both stopped at the sight.

"Wow…" they murmured, looking at the trees.

"There's Caleb's chess board over there, but it's bigger than us." Child Caleb noted "I think he built this. Is this the new dream?"

"Does that mean… Is Caleb alive again!?" Child Sarah continued, eye's widening. She then realized that Caleb wouldn't make it so… inhospitable. They thought.

"No…"

That voice did not belong to either of the children. Said absol kits jumped and looked to their left. standing on the snow, facing them, was a human. He had pale-ish skin, and everything else was silver. Silver hair, silver eyes, silver loose clothing that reached to his wrists and shoes, which were also silver, and a large silver cape flowing behind him even without wind.

"W-who are you?"

The human walked up to the children and knelt once he reached them, still above them but not so intimidating. "You two…" he murmured, a kind smile on his face that reached his eyes. He gathered the two of them into a hug.

"I know you try to be strong… You don't need to be. You can cry for him if you want to." the boy promised, warming the kits up with his own warmth.

They took his words to heart and cried. Weeping for Caleb and Riley and everything else they had lost. They had at least attempted to be strong after they left where he died, but sometimes someone just has to cry. Everything just hit them all at once again. Caleb was gone. Riley was gone. Everything beautiful Caleb had built for them… All gone.

Hours later, they had cried themselves to sleep finally. The mysterious boy smiled at them, and stood up with them in his arms.

a rift opened in front of him. Strands of energy flowed free to float about around the boy, who took a branch of energy in his hands. The threads of energy were slowly growing, but the teenage boy blinked, and one of the threads separating from the others broke away and began to dissolve. As it did, the sky turned red and a rumbling was heard.

Despite the fact that the kits were unconscious, the human boy spoke to them. "This universe will crumble soon. I let it branch at the point of decision so that he could survive, and he did. Oh, you bet he did. Just not here, not in this universe. This one, filled with death and destruction and horrid choices. All of this pain will be over soon, and quick enough so that no one will be afraid for long. It's all right. There is a better world out there. We, however, must depart into time once more."

The silver boy crouched and leaped, flying into the sky and flashing away in a silver flash of light as the thread landed on the ground, dissolved, and everything slammed into blackness.

 **Okay, that was super depressing. This is why Caleb went to Sky Peak, where he could be discovered, saved, and brought back. Things go horribly wrong of course. He's the main character. I wrote this on a whim; it will not continue from this chapter. It is a one shot, albeit a long one.**

 **Unlike TAC, this was planned rather spontaneously. I am new to tragic stories, or at least writing them. If you want to tell me how I did, go ahead and review if you like.**

 **The only thing in this entire story that might, MIGHT affect canon TAC is the last scene where the absol children were rescued as the horrid, damaged world was promptly deleted in favor of the much better and much more canon TAC. As for the mystery human that seems entirely random, he is NOT entirely random. His character was planned, and like the others in that group, transcend the boundaries of the multiverse. References could be made by him or others as they appear in other stories… Any other story I choose to make, whether it be New Age, TAC 1 or 2 or any future ones, or any unrelated story.**

 **This is my first tragic story, and is probably my last story that focuses solely on tragedy. My other stories have mixed issues of course. This was supposed to end badly, so I cannot fault you for disliking it, but once I thought of it, I had to get it on paper and out before it had me wondering for a long time.**

 **See you as I continue writing my other stories.**

 **-Hyperjade**


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